4a.

CLAUSE ELEMENTS
5 types of sentence elements:

 subject They
 verb elected
 object him
 complement president
 adverbial at the meeting.

Subject

Subject (S) an agent of action represented by predicator. The subject is a noun or noun phrase,
pronoun or subordinate clause. (The dog was sick. = noun / Mad dogs and Englishmen go out
in the midday sun. = noun phrase / They are jealous. = pronoun / What she said is untrue. =
subordinate clause).

Subject is usually before the verb and subject pronoun must be in the nominative case (you
not your). The subject is usually present in a clause but it may be omitted in non-standard
structures or imperatives (Listen to this. = you).

Finite clause:

 that-clause: That she’s still alive is sheer luck.

 nominal relative clause: What he needs is another chance.

Non-finite clause:

 to-infinitive: To know all is to forgive all.

 -ing-clause: Running in the rain refreshes all my senses.

Dummy subject: it and existential there: It’s a good idea to book early. There’s coffee in this
jar. – There + it only signal that the true subject will follow.

Verb (predicative)

Verb phrase has central position – obligatory element. The next meeting will be in March. I
would never meddle in these matters.

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 Object

Object (O) is a sufferer of the action and it´s often omitted. It follows the verb phrase and
occurs with transitive verbs. May be a noun phrase or clause.

Finite object

 that-clause: We think that this test is unnecessary.

 wh-clause: They eat what they can get.

Non-finite object

 wh-infinitive clause: They don’t know what to do.

 to-infinitive clause: She wanted to know your address.
 bare infinitive clause: She makes me laugh.
 -ing-clause: I enjoy singing in the chair.

Direct object (OD) is the most usual, an answer for Who? What? (We parked the car over
there. / She kicked him.)

Indirect object (OI) is always accompanied by a direct object! The answer for To who/to
what? (Komu/čemu?). It occurs after ditransitive verbs such as give and tell and comes before
DO and generally denotes people receiving something from the action of the verb. Her mother
(S) sent (V) her (Oi) a cheque. (Od)

Prepositional object (Oprep): Give (V) the parcel (Od) to him. (Oprep). (also – on your
reply, for Tommy…)

[S(Tom) V(showed) Oi(me) Od(his toys)].

[S(Tom) P(showed) Od(his toys) Oprep(to me)].

Complement

Subject complement (Cs) – relates to the subject, follows the copular verbs (appear, be,
seem, become, feel, look, smell, sound, taste, become, get, go, grow, prove, turn…).

He (S) ‘s (V) my brother in law (Cs). – extra information about a subject.

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NP: My grandma was a novelist.

AdjP: The girl seemed very restless. x acted restless (it is not a complement here)

Object complement (Co) – relates to the object and follows the object. The main verb has to
be a transitive (make, find, consider, name).

They (S) labelled (V) him (Od) a coward (Co). – extra information about an object.

[S(Tolkien) P(was) Cs
(a great writer)]. x [S(Everyone) P(considered) O(Tolkien) Co
(a great
writer)].

Adverbial

Adverbial (A) modifies or tells us something more about the sentence or the verb.
Sometimes we must use it to complete the meaning – obligatory adverbials. Adverbial
complements make a sentence meaningless when removed (John put flowers in a vase.)

Optional adverbials add additional information to the clause – we can freely add them of
remove them.

Expletives (klení) to intensify (the hell, bloody well, freaking, fucking)

 time (Atime)
 place (Aplace)
 manner (Amanner)
 degree (Adegree)
 frequency (Afrequency)
 intensity (Aintensity)

In the summer (Atime) we (S) often (Afrequency) make (V) our own ice cream. (Od)

Vocatives

Vocatives are optional elements used to show the person to whom a sentence is addressed and
may occur in various positions in the clause.

John, it's me. It's me, darling. You silly person, what do you mean? Come in, ladies, and sit
down.